In the current state of the art, a visual inspection must be made of a vehicle being returned from a rental activity for damage that may have occurred during the rental period. This is necessary so that any possible recovery for the damage from the renter can be acted upon. Further, this prevents the wrong party, a subsequent renter, from being incorrectly assigned responsibility for the damage.
The problem is that a visual inspection requires time and effort to be expended by the rental agency personnel and the visual inspection may not detect a small crack in the glass that may later grow into a much larger crack necessitating glass replacement, possibly at the rental agencies expense. There is also a problem of detecting hail damage to the vehicle that may not be immediately apparent.
By detecting and alerting the rental agency personnel to possible glass or hail damage, a more detailed inspection can be made, reducing the chance of undetected damage. Further, if possible glass or hail damage is not detected during the rental period, inspection of the vehicle may not be necessary and the rental transaction may be expedited, reducing cost to the rental agency and increasing customer satisfaction.